Hawaiʻi - Cultures and Cuisines: Finding More Books

Finding Books - Step 1: Check the Catalog

Our library's catalog (called Hawaii Voyager - http://uhmanoa.lib.hawaii.edu) holds descriptive records for our books, videos, reports, dissertations, etc. When you search the catalog, you are looking for records with titles or subject headings that match your search terms.

The simplest way to search Voyager is to use the Basic Search, and to select the Keyword Search.

Then enter your search terms and hit the Search button. Your search results will appear in reverse chronological order.

Other common ways to search from the Basic Search screen is to search by:

• Title Keyword (use if you know only some of the word in the title)
• Title Begins With (use if you know exactly how the title starts)
• Author (Results Sorted by Title) (use if you know the author and want to see what he or she has written; enter last name first)
• Subject Browse (search to see subject headings that begin with your search term; a better way to search Subject Headings is to use the Subject TAB)

Finding Books - Step 2: Figure Out Where The Books You Want Are

When you find a record that describes a book that seems useful to you, scroll down until you see the Holdings Information. Under that, you'll see how many copies of that book (or video, or whatever) we have. You'll see:

• Location: This shows you the campus and location in the library
• Call Number: The call number shows you the shelf location of the item
• Status: This shows you if the item is available

Below in the enlarged image you can see that we have one copy of this book at UH Mānoa's Hawaiian Collection, and one copy at Kapiʻolani Community College's Hawaiian Collection.

Finding Books - Step 3a: Get the Books You Want

In this holdings records example below, you can see that we have two copies in UH Mānoa's Hamilton Library (this means in Hamilton's open stacks), and two copies in Hamilton Library's Hawaiian Collection.

If the copy you want is in the open Hamilton stacks, you go and get that book yourself. Check here for a list of call number locations in the library.

If the copy you want is in Hamilton's Hawaiian Collection or Hamilton's Pacific Collection, you submit a request and we go and get it for you. It's easy, see the next box below.

Finding Books - Step 3b: Request the Books You Want

If the copy you want is in Hamilton's Hawaiian Collection or Hamilton's Pacific Collection, you submit a request and we go and get it for you. You do this all online through our catalog and your book will be ready for you in just a few minutes.

Click on "Get This Item."
Click on the bright yellow box to log in with your UH username. If you don't have a UH username, enter 123 in the Number box, and page in the Last Name box.
Click on "UH Manoa Hawn/Pac OR Spec. Research Col."
If you used the 123/page login, enter your last name in the Comments box and enter 123 again in the Library Barcode box.
Click "Submit Request."
In 5-10 minutes, your books will be available at the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections circulation desk. If you do not have a library card, you will need to leave a photo ID at our circulation desk while you use the books in the reading room.

Finding too much? Use more search terms.
Finding too little? Use fewer search terms.

It's counter-intuitive, but in the Basic Keyword Search the more words you use, the fewer things you get back.